Hitching device.



' No. 668,871. Patanted ram 26; 1am.

n. L. DALLABD.

HITCHING DEVICE.

(Application fil'ed Mar. 17, 1900.) (llo Model.)

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PATENT HITCHING DEVICE.

SPECIFZCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 668,871, dated February :26, 1901'.

Application filed March 1'7, 1900. berial No. 9,047, (No model.)

T0 all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, NOAH Lmnwoon DAL- LARD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Nheeling, in the county of Ohio and State of West Virginia, have invented a new and Improved Hitching Device, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The purpose of the invention is to provide a simple and light hitching device especially adapted for hitching horses and which may he clamped to and held in looking engagement with a projecting portion of a curbstone, a tree, or a post, or which may be used also in connection with a ring attached to any suit-able support, and to so construct the hitching device that it may be expeditiously and conveniently applied to and locked in engagement with any stationary object and as readily and conveniently connected with a portion of the harness of an animal.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indi cate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the hitching device applied to a on rbstone and attached to the bridle of a horse. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the device, illustrating the same in its open and in its closed position; and Fig. 3 is a detail View illustrating the manner in which the device may be locked in firm engagement with the article it is to grasp.

The body of the device is in the nature of a clamp, and consists of two opposing hooks 10 and 11, provided with shanks 10 and 11, which shanks are usually straight, and these shanks are pivotally connected just above the hook-sections of the clamp by means of a suitable pin 12 or its equivalent. The hooksections of the device when the clampis closed are adapted to overlap at their free ends and are held in such position by a spring 13,which extends from one hook-section of the clamp to the other, as shown in Fig. 2, and this spring is extended when the hook-sections are separated, and consequently causes the free ends of the hook-sections when engaged with any object to be in positive engagement therewith. It is obvious that when the hooksections 10 and 11 of theclamp are drawn apart the shank-sections 10 and 11 are 1ikewise separated and that when the shank-sections are drawn together they will cause the free ends of the hook-sections to more firmly embrace the object with which they may be in engagement. Therefore a strap or, preferably, a chain 15 is provided in connection with the clamp, which chain has a ring 16 at its upper end and the ordinary snap-hook 17 or similar device at its lower end, and the lower portion of the chain is passed through loops 14, located at the upper end of the shank-sections 10 and 11 of the clamp.

In the operation of the device the chain is passed, preferably, through a ring of the bridle-bit and then through the ring 16 at the upper end of the chain, and the lower portion of the chain is then passed through the loops 14 carried by the shanks 10 and 11 of the clamp, and thesnap-hook 17 is engaged with a convenient link in the chain or made to pass through a convenient eyelet in a strap, if a strap be used instead of achain. it will be observed that when the clamp is made to embrace any object, a projecting portion of a curbstone, for example, as shown in Fig. 1, when a horse thus hitched endeavors to pull away the action of drawing back on the part of the animal will tend to close the hooks of the clamp and make them engage more firmly with the object to which they are attached.

In order that the clamp maybe firmly locked to the object with which it engages,orlocked to such an extent that it cannot be disengaged when the chain or strap 15 connected therewith is slack, the chain or strap is passed through the eyes 14 at the shanks of the clamp, and the chain or strap at its lower end is drawn as tight as possible so as to force the free ends of the hook-sections 10 and 11 of the clamp, which are usually sharp, as far as possible into the object with which they engage, and after such object is attained the lower end of the chain is secured to the body by a padlock 18 or equivalent fastening device.

When the clamp is to be used in connection with a ring attached to any support, the free Thus 1 tion with the harness of a horse, and a look ing connection between the end of the strap or chain passed through the loops of the shanks, and the body portion of the strap or chain, as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

NOAH LINNWOOD DALLARD. Witnesses:

W. J. Cons, HOUSTON H. PETTIS. 

